Damages to be assessed from Aug 25, says Kaira

ISLAMABAD: The current rescue and relief operation will continue till October 30 and the situation will then be reviewed, according to Federal Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira.

Giving a briefing in Islamabad on the flood situation on Monday, the minister said that the government will conduct a damage need assessment survey from August 25 to November 30. The recovery phase of the relief operation, he said, will also begin on August 25.

Replying to a question, he said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Gilani had agreed to establish a new organisation for flood relief and rehabilitation and the government has also consulted other political parties regarding this proposal.

He said the new institution will consist of credible people and it will work on the model used for the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) of Malakand division.

He said the IDPs were first registered on the model of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and that the international community was satisfied with
the transparency of the process. He added that the Centre has already asked the provinces to start the registration process.

He said that, so far, the floods have killed 1,463 people, injured 2,024 and damaged 895,259 homes across the country. He added that the flood waters had destroyed 20 bridges belonging to the National Highway Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan and it would take Rs6 billion rupees to rebuild them.

He said that the flow of water at the Guddu barrage was 1,056,863 cusecs, Sukkur barrage 1,021,220 cusecs and 276,284 at the Kotri barrage.

He added that the government had forecast a flow of 800,000 at the Kotri barrage but it remained low due to the spreading of flood waters because of breaches in dykes and canals at various places.

He said that the maximum flow of water through the Kotri barrage over the next three days will be from 300,000 to 500,000 cusecs. The high flood situation at Sukkur and Guddu, according to the information minister, will remain for three more days.

The minister ruled out any possibility of rains in the catchment areas of the Sutlej and Ravi rivers.

He said that there was immense pressure on dykes at Kot Sabzal, which is located on the border of Punjab and Sindh. If dykes at Kot Subzal gave in, then an area of five square kilometers will be flooded, he warned.

Providing details of the tents, blankets and life jackets distributed so far, Kaira said that the government has provided 95,053 tents, 71, 676 blankets and 4, 999 life jackets.

The information minister also said that special trains are being run to transport people displaced by the floods from interior Sindh to Karachi and Hyderabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2010.